Lord Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society and the Queen's astronomer, said the existence of extraterrestrial life may be beyond human comprehension. He made these remarks shortly after the first National Academy of Sciences conference on the possibility of alien life.
Dr. Frank Drake, the world's leading "alien hunter", said at the conference that satellite television and the "digital revolution" are making humanity invisible to aliens by reducing the transmission of television and radio signals into space.
Currently, the Earth is surrounded by a 50-year "shell" of radiation from analogue television, radio and radar transmissions. But while these signals have traveled far enough to reach many nearby star systems, they are rapidly disappearing in the wake of digital technology, according to Dr. Drake.
The scientist, who founded the organization for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence in the United States, said that digital television signals would look like noise to a race of observing aliens.
